Citizens of local jurisdictions enhance plant community preservation through ballot initiatives and voter-driven conservation efforts.

ABSTRACT: Open space areas protected by local communities may augment larger scale preservation efforts and may offer overlooked benefits to biodiversity conservation provided they are in suitable ecological condition. We examine protected areas established by local communities through ballot initiatives, a form of direct democracy, in California, USA. We compare ecological conditions of wooded habitats on local ballot protected sites and on sites protected by a state-level conservation agency. Collectively, we found few differences in ecological conditions on each protected area type. Ballot sites had greater invasive understory cover and larger trees. Community dissimilarity patterns suggested ballot sites protect a complementary set of tree species to those on state lands. Overall, geographic cha

SUBMITTER: Crain BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8068745 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature